Linux: >> Linux Kernel >> 6.1.139 Security Vulnerabilities
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
efivarfs: fix error propagation in efivar_entry_get()
efivar_entry_get() always returns success even if the underlying
__efivar_entry_get() fails, masking errors.
This may result in uninitialized heap memory being copied to userspace
in the efivarfs_file_read() path.
Fix it by returning the error from __efivar_entry_get().
CVSS Score
7.8
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
btrfs: do not strictly require dirty metadata threshold for metadata writepages
[BUG]
There is an internal report that over 1000 processes are
waiting at the io_schedule_timeout() of balance_dirty_pages(), causing
a system hang and trigger a kernel coredump.
The kernel is v6.4 kernel based, but the root problem still applies to
any upstream kernel before v6.18.
[CAUSE]
From Jan Kara for his wisdom on the dirty page balance behavior first.
This cgroup dirty limit was what was actually playing the role here
because the cgroup had only a small amount of memory and so the dirty
limit for it was something like 16MB.
Dirty throttling is responsible for enforcing that nobody can dirty
(significantly) more dirty memory than there's dirty limit. Thus when
a task is dirtying pages it periodically enters into balance_dirty_pages()
and we let it sleep there to slow down the dirtying.
When the system is over dirty limit already (either globally or within
a cgroup of the running task), we will not let the task exit from
balance_dirty_pages() until the number of dirty pages drops below the
limit.
So in this particular case, as I already mentioned, there was a cgroup
with relatively small amount of memory and as a result with dirty limit
set at 16MB. A task from that cgroup has dirtied about 28MB worth of
pages in btrfs btree inode and these were practically the only dirty
pages in that cgroup.
So that means the only way to reduce the dirty pages of that cgroup is
to writeback the dirty pages of btrfs btree inode, and only after that
those processes can exit balance_dirty_pages().
Now back to the btrfs part, btree_writepages() is responsible for
writing back dirty btree inode pages.
The problem here is, there is a btrfs internal threshold that if the
btree inode's dirty bytes are below the 32M threshold, it will not
do any writeback.
This behavior is to batch as much metadata as possible so we won't write
back those tree blocks and then later re-COW them again for another
modification.
This internal 32MiB is higher than the existing dirty page size (28MiB),
meaning no writeback will happen, causing a deadlock between btrfs and
cgroup:
- Btrfs doesn't want to write back btree inode until more dirty pages
- Cgroup/MM doesn't want more dirty pages for btrfs btree inode
Thus any process touching that btree inode is put into sleep until
the number of dirty pages is reduced.
Thanks Jan Kara a lot for the analysis of the root cause.
[ENHANCEMENT]
Since kernel commit b55102826d7d ("btrfs: set AS_KERNEL_FILE on the
btree_inode"), btrfs btree inode pages will only be charged to the root
cgroup which should have a much larger limit than btrfs' 32MiB
threshold.
So it should not affect newer kernels.
But for all current LTS kernels, they are all affected by this problem,
and backporting the whole AS_KERNEL_FILE may not be a good idea.
Even for newer kernels I still think it's a good idea to get
rid of the internal threshold at btree_writepages(), since for most cases
cgroup/MM has a better view of full system memory usage than btrfs' fixed
threshold.
For internal callers using btrfs_btree_balance_dirty() since that
function is already doing internal threshold check, we don't need to
bother them.
But for external callers of btree_writepages(), just respect their
requests and write back whatever they want, ignoring the internal
btrfs threshold to avoid such deadlock on btree inode dirty page
balancing.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
bpf, test_run: Subtract size of xdp_frame from allowed metadata size
The xdp_frame structure takes up part of the XDP frame headroom,
limiting the size of the metadata. However, in bpf_test_run, we don't
take this into account, which makes it possible for userspace to supply
a metadata size that is too large (taking up the entire headroom).
If userspace supplies such a large metadata size in live packet mode,
the xdp_update_frame_from_buff() call in xdp_test_run_init_page() call
will fail, after which packet transmission proceeds with an
uninitialised frame structure, leading to the usual Bad Stuff.
The commit in the Fixes tag fixed a related bug where the second check
in xdp_update_frame_from_buff() could fail, but did not add any
additional constraints on the metadata size. Complete the fix by adding
an additional check on the metadata size. Reorder the checks slightly to
make the logic clearer and add a comment.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
btrfs: send: check for inline extents in range_is_hole_in_parent()
Before accessing the disk_bytenr field of a file extent item we need
to check if we are dealing with an inline extent.
This is because for inline extents their data starts at the offset of
the disk_bytenr field. So accessing the disk_bytenr
means we are accessing inline data or in case the inline data is less
than 8 bytes we can actually cause an invalid
memory access if this inline extent item is the first item in the leaf
or access metadata from other items.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm/damon/sysfs-scheme: cleanup access_pattern subdirs on scheme dir setup failure
When a DAMOS-scheme DAMON sysfs directory setup fails after setup of
access_pattern/ directory, subdirectories of access_pattern/ directory are
not cleaned up. As a result, DAMON sysfs interface is nearly broken until
the system reboots, and the memory for the unremoved directory is leaked.
Cleanup the directories under such failures.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm/damon/sysfs: cleanup attrs subdirs on context dir setup failure
When a context DAMON sysfs directory setup is failed after setup of attrs/
directory, subdirectories of attrs/ directory are not cleaned up. As a
result, DAMON sysfs interface is nearly broken until the system reboots,
and the memory for the unremoved directory is leaked.
Cleanup the directories under such failures.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
Bluetooth: hci_uart: fix null-ptr-deref in hci_uart_write_work
hci_uart_set_proto() sets HCI_UART_PROTO_INIT before calling
hci_uart_register_dev(), which calls proto->open() to initialize
hu->priv. However, if a TTY write wakeup occurs during this window,
hci_uart_tx_wakeup() may schedule write_work before hu->priv is
initialized, leading to a NULL pointer dereference in
hci_uart_write_work() when proto->dequeue() accesses hu->priv.
The race condition is:
CPU0 CPU1
---- ----
hci_uart_set_proto()
set_bit(HCI_UART_PROTO_INIT)
hci_uart_register_dev()
tty write wakeup
hci_uart_tty_wakeup()
hci_uart_tx_wakeup()
schedule_work(&hu->write_work)
proto->open(hu)
// initializes hu->priv
hci_uart_write_work()
hci_uart_dequeue()
proto->dequeue(hu)
// accesses hu->priv (NULL!)
Fix this by moving set_bit(HCI_UART_PROTO_INIT) after proto->open()
succeeds, ensuring hu->priv is initialized before any work can be
scheduled.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
wifi: ath10k: fix dma_free_coherent() pointer
dma_alloc_coherent() allocates a DMA mapped buffer and stores the
addresses in XXX_unaligned fields. Those should be reused when freeing
the buffer rather than the aligned addresses.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
of: unittest: Fix memory leak in unittest_data_add()
In unittest_data_add(), if of_resolve_phandles() fails, the allocated
unittest_data is not freed, leading to a memory leak.
Fix this by using scope-based cleanup helper __free(kfree) for automatic
resource cleanup. This ensures unittest_data is automatically freed when
it goes out of scope in error paths.
For the success path, use retain_and_null_ptr() to transfer ownership
of the memory to the device tree and prevent double freeing.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
tracing: Add recursion protection in kernel stack trace recording
A bug was reported about an infinite recursion caused by tracing the rcu
events with the kernel stack trace trigger enabled. The stack trace code
called back into RCU which then called the stack trace again.
Expand the ftrace recursion protection to add a set of bits to protect
events from recursion. Each bit represents the context that the event is
in (normal, softirq, interrupt and NMI).
Have the stack trace code use the interrupt context to protect against
recursion.
Note, the bug showed an issue in both the RCU code as well as the tracing
stacktrace code. This only handles the tracing stack trace side of the
bug. The RCU fix will be handled separately.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14